For a few days earlier this month, some St. Paul parents believed their elementary students to be less skilled in math and reading than they really were.

Because of a technical glitch, the St. Paul district misrepresented scores on a standardized test that tracks gains across the school year.

On parent report cards, results on the Measures of Academic Progress, or MAP, for fall and spring appeared lower than the scores students in the second through sixth grade actually earned.

A parent noticed a discrepancy with an earlier report of fall MAP scores and alerted the district, officials said. Soon after, parents received a letter with the accurate scores.

“As soon as we realized there was an error, we wanted to get the correct information out right away,” said Matthew Mohs, chief academic officer for the district.

He said that in some cases, scores were off substantially — in others, only slightly. The district stressed that while inaccurate information went out to parents, school and district officials had the correct scores all along.

The glitch affected the reported scores of all students in the second through the sixth grades who took the MAP in the 38,000-pupil district.

Officials verified the district has not reported incorrect scores before and have taken steps to prevent a mix-up in the future.

St. Paul administers the MAP tests three times a year to gauge how students perform in reading and math and to guide instruction.

Next fall, the district will stop administering the MAP tests in third through fifth grades and switch to giving a practice version of the state math assessment online.

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